"With George Weah running for President of Liberia, and favourite to win, have any former national team captains gone on to captain their nation?" asks Paul Whitfield.

Not exactly Paul, but we can come pretty close in former semi-professional footballer Recep Tayyip Erdogan - now the Prime Minister of Turkey. Erdogan played for 16 years before giving up the game in 1980 to work in the private sector, eventually becoming leader of the Justice and Development Party and being elected as PM in 2003. He still has his finger on the pulse, mind, reportedly trying - but failing - to recently persuade Emre to return to Turkey rather than join Newcastle.

Brazilian legends are no strangers to public office, either. Famously, Pele served as the country's minister of sport between 1995 and 1998, while Zico also briefly occupied this role after his retirement in 1990. Forty-fags-a-day striker Socrates also dipped his toe into the politics pool as a member of the Workers' Party.

Dynamo Kiev and Soviet Union great Oleg Blokhin has also enjoyed the best of both worlds. Upon ending his playing days in 1997, the former European Player of the Year became a communist member of the Ukrainian parliament; in 2003, he was appointed as the country's national coach. But political opponents claimed such a dual mandate was illegal, so last March Blokhin resigned. The president of the football federation, however, was desperate to reinstate him, what with Ukraine being on the verge of their first ever World Cup qualification, and took the matter to court. A judge subsequently ruled that Blokhin could indeed manage the country and be a parliamentarian at the same time, so less than a month later he took the reins anew. And, of course, to complete the happy ending, Ukraine became the first European side (after Germany, naturally) to qualify for next summer's World Cup.

Former Belgian international Marc Wilmots was another to mix football and politics simultaneously, albeit with less success. The Liberal senator was sacked as St Truiden manager in February after barely 10 months in the job.

Closer to home, former First Minister of Scotland Henry McLeish once played for East Fife, while current Labour MP for Norwich North, Ian Gibson, enjoyed a career that included spells at Airdrie, St Mirren and Queen of the South. And one-time Arsenal player, Albert Gudmundsson, returned to his native Iceland and ran for president in 1980; but lost.

However, the future looks bright for footballers-turned-politicians: Weah himself is widely tipped to win on October 11, while recent Plymouth signing Taribo West has also declared: "By the grace of God when I leave football I hope to gun for Nigeria's presidency one day." Possibly not the most politically correct words, Taribo, but never mind. Then there is ex-Croatia coach Miroslav Blazevic (currently in charge of Varteks Varazdin), who plans to take on his country's President Mesic. "I hope to overthrow Stjepan Mesic, whom I have never liked very much," he brazenly declared. Whatever next: Rio Ferdinand going toe to toe with David Blunkett?

CROSS THAT BRIDGE WHEN THEY COME TO IT

"As a Chelsea fan, I'm chuffed to see us get off to our best start ever," smirks Olly McWilliams. "But is it the best start to a season ever?"

Winning all six opening games without conceding a goal is certainly a new Premiership record Olly, but Chelsea have got another six wins to go before they can lay claim to the best string of wins from the start of a top-flight season.

Back in 1960-61, Tottenham's double-winning side began their campaign with 11 straight victories: they beat all-comers, scoring 36 goals in the process, until being held 1-1 by Manchester City on October 10.

Jose Mourinho's side has Aston Villa, Bolton and Blackburn to beat at home, and two trips to Merseyside to play Liverpool and Everton to get through to match that feat. And there's just the small task of beating Manchester United at Old Trafford if they want to top it. Which they may well do - but we'd stake the mortgage on them failing to come up with another 24 goals in doing so.

However, standing head and shoulders above even Spurs in terms of the Football League record, are Reading, owners of a 13-match winning streak at the beginning of the 1985-86 Division Three campaign.

HE MUST HAVE HAD WASHING POWDER IN HIS GLOVES

Brian Farenell writes: "I watched Kasey Keller record his 44th clean sheet in a US jersey recently, but who holds the all-time record for most clean sheets in international play?"

It appears only hip-hop party-man P Diddy can boast as many name changes as the men from the, er, newly-monikered Matchroom Stadium. Since 1881, when they were founded as 'Glyn Cricket and Football Club', the club has undergone six names changes. By 1886 they were known as 'Eagle FC', but within two years the now-familiar 'Orient FC' had been introduced, upon the recommendation of a player who also worked for the Orient Shipping Line.

Just 11 years later, yet another name was adopted, in an apparent bid to attract more support from the well-heeled area of Clapton; thus creating 'Clapton Orient'. This time the name stuck - well, for 48 years at least, until, in their new base of Leyton, East London, they plumped for 'Leyton Orient'. The story doesn't end here, however: in 1966, 'Leyton' was dropped, until being restored again in 1987.

KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE

"Can you confirm that the self-proclaimed professionally retired hard man Tommy Smith was once booked, charged by Uefa and subsequently suspended for a number of European games for an offence amounting to cheating, namely feigning an injury? I have been told it may have been about the early 70s against Ferencvaros. I know it can't possibly be true and we have written to Tommy many times asking him to deny it, without success. Can you assist?" asked Pat Kevin Crosby in 2001.

It transpired that Pat had virtually answered his own question. The incident referred to happened during Liverpool's Cup Winners' Cup run in the 1974-75 season - Bob Paisley's first in charge.

Having dispatched Stromsgodset of Norway 12-0 over two legs, clocking up a club-record 11-0 victory in one of them, the campaign was going well. And things looked even better in the next round when Kevin Keegan gave the Reds an early first-leg lead at Anfield against Ferencvaros. However, Mate Fenyvesi scored a last-minute equaliser to totally knacker the plans of Paisley's men, who failed to come up with an away goal in the return leg.

Insult was added to feigned injury when Tommy Smith went down near the end, pretending to have been clocked by a missile that had been chucked onto the pitch. Yellow card and European ban ahoy! By the way, if you want some really eye-opening stuff about Mr Smith, we suggest you purchase a copy of Dave Hill's book about John Barnes's arrival on Merseyside, Out Of His Skin.

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Can you help?

"With Bravo's Football Italia featuring the classic opening credits, as it originally did on Channel 4, complete with shouts of 'Gol, lazoo ...' or something, can anyone clarify what is actually shouted at the end of the music, and what does it mean in English?" asks Andy Beill.

"Is it against the laws of football for players to give their team-mates a 'leg-up' during set pieces (think rugby line-outs) or to use their shoulders to vault even higher?" wonders Rayner Simpson.

Dan Dowden-Brown says: "My friends and I are trying to put together a starting XI of players currently in the English domestic leagues with girl's first names (no abbreviations, eg Alex, Nicky, etc). Can anyone help?"